With the release of the BBC Tripods series on DVD and the promise of an Alex Proyas film adaptation, I thought this interview with the trilogy’s prolific author, conducted in 1999, might be of interest. I’d never interviewed anyone before, and found Sam incredibly generous and a true gent.

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zum Kinofilm - mal schnell hergeholt (aus aktuellem Anlass)

Zitat:

Is there any news of (Proyas) film version of the Tripods trilogy?

I’m not sure what’s currently happening on the movie front: I was told three months ago there was a script in and I’d be sent a copy, but nothing has happened since. I’m aware of a basic problem with the Tripods-as-Movie in that producers tend automatically to regard it as (futuristic) SF. From that standpoint nothing is lost and vast box-office advantage is to be gained by transferring the setting to North America. I’ve no idea whether Touchstone are looking at it from this viewpoint - Jerry Hellman, whose higher than usual sensitivity may be judged by his having produced Midnight Cowboy, had that notion, and actually took the trouble to come to Rye to convince me of its necessity. I wasn’t convinced, but knew better than to argue. Having failed to raise the necessary cash he later told me he was going back to the original setting. It still didn’t work - American financiers are extremely reluctant to put up money for SF films based outside America.

Yet the feedback I’ve had from (overwhelmingly American) children over more than three decades shows that what they most like about the books is the unnerving feeling of being in a historical set-up, incidentally lit by monstrous flashes from some mysterious future: predominantly it’s the mix of past and future which grabs them. And unfortunately the USA doesn’t have a past in the European sense. There’s no mediaeval background to relate to: transferring the Tripods across the Atlantic would be like setting Robin Hood in New England. (Americans are in fact entirely happy about foreign settings for historical movies, eg. Braveheart.) And unless it’s done as basically historical rather than as routine SF, my feeling is it won’t work.